NHL All-Star-Game Voting a Sham: League Should Step in and Put a Stop to Fan-Induced Nepotism

Everyone knows that the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens are a good team, but this good? C'mon...

The Habs and Have-nots of Votes

With the NHL's annual all-star game festivities taking place in Montreal this year (to celebrate the Habs' 100th-year anniversary), six Canadiens have been nominated into the Eastern Conference's starting line-up this year. Because of the democratic nature of the free world, one guesses, those selected will end up having been by the fans. As such, all six Habs (Saku Koivu, Mike Komisarek, Alex Kovalev, Andrei Markov, Carey Price, and Alex Tanguay) are currently dominating the leaderboard.

As it stands now, they each hold comfortable leads over those next in line and the all-star game will consequently see an all-Habs Eastern Conference team to start the game. Can anybody else see the injustice here?

Habs Struggles Well-Documented

At 11-5-2 the Habs are far from a bad team, but, compared to the Detroit Red Wings, whose own six nominated players are doing quite well in the voting as well, they are quite the pushovers. The Red Wings are 13-2-3, good for second place in the highly competitive Western conference. The Canadiens, in contrast, are currently in fifth place in the East.

While normally it goes without saying that the fans' opinions are what matter, it doesn't take a genius to realize that the only reason that Komisarek is atop the leaderboard is because Montrealers, both in the city and abroad, have been voting non-stop to get their beloved Habs into the game.

Komisarek is undoubtedly a valuable proponent to the Habs' success, but only as a stay-at-home defenseman. In parts of six seasons with the Habs, he has 11 total goals... that's an average of less than two per year. He also only has 48 assists (average of eight per year) to go along with those goals. When was the last time a defenseman with those numbers even got the chance to play in the all-star game? Of course fellow blueliner Rory Fitzpatrick almost made it a few years ago and has worse career offensive statistics than Komisarek, but that was as a write-in vote and, for lack of better terminology, was just a part of huge-scale practical joke that perhaps went a little too far.

Make no mistake about it, Komisarek is an all-star caliber defenseman, but, when talking about a game in which scoring matters and hitting is frowned upon, it's more an insult to the league and to its legitimate fans than anything that he was even placed on the ballot in the first place.

Those Who Belong but Haven't Been Chosen

League-leading scorer Evgeni Malkin is currently in fifth-place among Eastern Conference forwards (behind the three Habs forwards and then Pittsburgh Penguins teammate Sidney Crosby). The Washington Capitals' Alexander Semin, who has enjoyed a breakout campaign thus far from out of Alexander Ovechkin's shadow, is currently in seventh place, behind Ovechkin, despite having scored five more goals and four more points than last year's Hart Memorial Trophy winner.

The Boston Bruins' Tim Thomas, who has been lights-out for his team, leading the league in save percentage and goals-against average, is currently ranked fifth out of all five goaltenders listed on the leaderboard.

In the West, it's much of the same. Sure Vancouver Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo is worthy of his first-place status due to his five shutouts so far this season. But all three Red Wings forwards Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, and Marian Hossa? Only one of those three is in the top ten in scoring, and three other Western Conference players can be found above them in the standings: The Calgary Flames' Jarome Iginla, the Anaheim Ducks' Ryan Getzlaf, and the Chicago Blackhawks' Patrick Kane.

Giving the Fans What They Want

At this juncture, that would mean foregoing the voting process altogether and allowing generally impartial general managers and league executives to decide who gets to play in the game and who doesn't. It sounds harsh, but if the point of the game is to promote the league and hockey itself and to give the fans who choose to spend their valuable time watching it on television, or even going in person, it makes sense to try to make it the best game possible. That in turn means doing what's right. Clearly, as proven in the past - and this year specifically - some fans don't know how to do that.

The copyright of the article NHL All-Star-Game Voting a Sham in National Hockey League (NHL) is owned by Ryan Szporer. Permission to republish NHL All-Star-Game Voting a Sham in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Dec 4, 2008 9:19 AM

Guest :

Here here! While I like the idea of fan voting for the All-Star starters in theory, perhaps there should be a league check or two in place to avoid this type of FRAUD. The Flyers boast Carter, who currently leads the league in goals, Gagne, who is in 4th in points and 2nd in +/-, and Richards, who is better than the 3 Canadien forwards (who top the balloting) in every major category (goals, assists, points, and +/-). The Pens with Malkin and Crosby, the Caps with Ovechkin and Semin, and the list goes on...

This is a real injustice to the players who deserve to start, and this is bound to create bad blood (or worse blood) between the players and the fans of all eastern teams and those of Montreal. There should be some quick justice to correct this, or I'm afraid there is going a real backlash against one of the best hockey cities in the world.

Dec 4, 2008 12:45 PM

Ryan Szporer :

Thanks for the comment man.
When you say one of the best hockey cities in the world, I trust you're referring to Montreal, eh? In which case, I actually agree (being from Montreal). I think a lot of fans in Montreal though have been giving the city a bad reputation recently, with the riots last playoffs for one example and this latest incident. That being said, I'm not totally impartial to the idea of having an all-Canadiens starting line-up for the all-star game. It would be a nice distinction and memory to look back on when I'm 80.

I don't think there's going to be any backlash against Montreal, especially considering the fact that it seems like the league is endorsing this kind of behaviour (all the automatic voting for the Habs players being discounted notwithstanding, of course). If the league was truly against it, they wouldn't be posting stories or blog entries on their site advertising the fact. Thankfully, Crosby has cracked the top three, which at least means a Habs shutout is less likely. But, yeah, the Flyers should be better-represented than the Habs, I think.

-Ryan